The fact that the ruling Europe Now Movement (PES) boasts that the parliament adopted twice as many laws last year as the average in the last decade does not mean that the Assembly is working well, nor that the numerous regulations passed are of high quality, because many important solutions were adopted "under the table", hastily and without consulting those whose community the country wants to join - the European Union (EU).
Some of the controversial acts that the highest legislative chamber passed last year are those on free access to information (FOI), civil servants and employees, financing of political entities and election campaigns, election of councilors and MPs...
An indicator that the parliament intends to continue with a similar practice is the agenda of the extraordinary session scheduled for February 2, which will include the already disputed draft regulations on the National Security Agency (ANS) and internal affairs.
Amendments to the ANB Law provide for the possibility of agents secretly monitoring citizens without a court order. This proposal provoked a sharp reaction from Brussels this summer, which called on the executive branch to explain the planned changes to the disputed regulation and allow for analysis. However, the reason for the failure to adopt the changes was not a warning from the European Commission (EC), but a dispute within the ruling majority. The government said at the time that it would not put the law on the agenda without an opinion from the EC. However, MPs will vote on the regulation in early February, and Brussels has no opinion.
Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and PES MP Boris Pejović Three days ago, he “bragged” that the highest legislative chamber had adopted 201 laws last year, twice the average over the past ten years. He stated that data from parliamentary reports indicated that this was “the most intense legislative cycle in the modern history of the Parliament.”
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Pejović told "Vijesti" yesterday that the number of adopted laws in itself is not a guarantee of improving legislation, but that their consistent and impartial implementation is crucial - "without exceptions, improvisations or adjustments to anyone." He said that the European agenda must not, and cannot, be an excuse for adopting poor-quality legal solutions.
Hastily, superficially, non-transparently
Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) Milena Gvozdenović She told the editorial staff that, although the way in which the so-called IBAR laws (Interim Benchmarks Implementation Report) were adopted in June 2024 was considered to be "incidental" and tied to a specific political moment, today's practice shows that such a pattern has become a common way of preparing and adopting laws - "in a hurry, superficially, non-transparently...".
She stated that the Government and MPs know in advance which laws are part of the European agenda, so that fulfilling the reform plan and obligations from the negotiation chapters cannot be an alibi for poor legislative procedure.
"... That is, waiting for final deadlines, pushing government laws through majority MPs, or for the Assembly to work on weekends, which in other circumstances could mean commitment, but in our case indicates extreme frivolity," she assessed.
Gvozdenović said that it is worrying that there is no adequate public debate on the laws, and that, according to her, only the opinions of the Government and MPs are considered relevant, adding that some laws were adopted without consultations with the EC, while others, even after receiving a positive opinion from the Commission, were regressed through subsequent corrections - such as the laws on STI and civil servants and state employees.
"In other words, we have a government that says: 'We have enough votes' and that tells us that it is not interested in others - while implementing ideas through laws such as increasing millions in funds for the work of parties (the law on party financing), charging citizens for access to information about the work of the government (the regulation on SPI), or appointing people with questionable professional and educational qualifications to management positions (the law on civil servants)," the interviewee underlined.
She pointed out that a particularly problematic example is the election laws - on the financing of political entities and election campaigns and the election of councilors and MPs, adopted last July. In the first, the government and the opposition agreed to increase budget allocations for parties by several million euros, and in the second, to hold all local elections on one day in June 2027. As a result, the mandate of some self-governments was extended, thus denying numerous citizens (around 234.000 of them) the right to vote until then.
Gvozdenović noted that these regulations were not agreed upon through a serious public debate, nor were the opinions of the EC and other stakeholders, such as the Venice Commission and the ODIHR, previously obtained. Government representatives called the adoption of these laws “historic”.
"Three months after its adoption, the Commission concluded that additional amendments were necessary to fully align the electoral legal framework with the EU acquis and European standards. This practically confirmed what we had been warning about - that the amendments were neither of sufficient quality nor inclusive," Gvozdenović emphasized, adding that the example of the Law on Sexual Offences is also worrying.
She said that this regulation, although it received a positive opinion from the EC and was supposed to represent a step forward in transparency, underwent a complete reversal in the parliamentary procedure.
"PES has revised the old DPS (Democratic Party of Socialists) solution from 2019 - which already has a negative opinion - and proposed that in court proceedings each party bears its own costs, thus effectively limiting the right to SPI," she explained.
She said that in 2025, the public was watching a "long-tried stunt" - the government prepares a law, and the members of the parliamentary majority propose it as their own in order to speed up the procedure. She assessed that it was clear that the goal of this action was to avoid public debate, and that it was worrying that the members of parliament agreed to it.
Pejović: Higher quality of laws
Boris Pejović told "Vijesti" that more than 120 laws adopted last year were part of the European agenda, and that they had undergone "an extremely rigorous control regime", adding that these regulations were amended, supplemented or adopted in order to be fully aligned with the latest EU directives and standards.
"Their texts were sent for expert review by the EC, where the level of compliance, legal precision and the manner of application of European norms in the Montenegrin legislative framework were checked," he underlined.
He stated that this "multi-layered control" confirms that it is not just about quantity, but about "substantial improvement of legislation."
According to him, the next step is for these laws to be consistently, professionally and impartially applied in practice - "because only then can they have their full effect." He assessed that the European agenda implies a higher, not a lower, standard of quality, and that laws adopted within that process undergo significantly stricter procedures than before.
"It is true that the defined deadlines and scope of work require rationalization of time, so sometimes the public gets the impression that accelerated dynamics also mean compromise on quality. However, the laws that have already passed the Brussels filters are not improvised solutions, but models that have been tested many times. Postponing them would not increase quality, but would jeopardize the negotiation dynamics...", stated Pejović.
He said that, in a year in which more than twenty negotiation chapters are expected to be closed, Montenegro does not need to choose between speed and quality, but both.
"... Rapid adoption of laws that have already been tested, harmonized and of high quality, with full responsibility for their consistent application in practice," said the interlocutor.
Zirojević: Only the "tightness" is important
MP of the opposition Social Democrats (SD) Nikola Zirojevic He told the newspaper that the practice of adopting a large number of laws in a short period of time makes the legislative process meaningless, as it is impossible for MPs to read and familiarize themselves with all the materials that come on the agenda.
"This is what happened with the IBAR laws, when, precisely under the pretext of the need for adoption, some things were slipped into those laws that our international partners may not address, and which represent significantly worse practice than we had," he said.
Zirojević assessed that it was only important to "satisfy the form", i.e. adopt legal solutions that would "get the nod" in Brussels.
"We adopt legal solutions, formal requests from international partners, but when we look at everything, we see that we have serious problems in practice, that these solutions are not being implemented as they should be, that they have not come to life, but have only been formally adopted," he pointed out.
He noted that whenever regulations are quickly adopted, it happens that the parliamentary majority tries, and sometimes succeeds, "to slip through segments that are far from good, and that international partners do not consider during analysis."
Speaking about a possible solution, Zirojević says that it is necessary to regulate the functioning of parliament in a better and more organized manner.
"... Because even apart from the laws on the European agenda, we generally operate on a day-to-day basis. What we can do is, when a session is scheduled, to start dealing with certain legal solutions in a timely manner, but even that is very difficult because sessions usually have a lot of agenda items," he underlined.
Laws to combat crime and corruption to be introduced in Parliament this year
Boris Pejović says that the Parliament faces an even more intense year, primarily due to the continuation of reforms related to chapters 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security).
He stated that one of the priorities will be the continuation of reforms in the area of criminal law, including amendments to the Law on the Prevention of Corruption.
"We expect these amendments to introduce clearer and stronger provisions relating to the monitoring and control of the lifestyle of public officials..."
He added that amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code will also be of particular importance, with the aim of shortening the duration of proceedings and increasing efficiency. He explained that the planned amendments should reduce the possibilities for unjustified delays, introduce a greater degree of procedural discipline and enable faster criminal proceedings.
"We expect that the parliamentary procedure will include amendments to the laws relating to the illicit enrichment of public officials, as well as the Law on the Confiscation of Property Gains Acquired through Criminal Activity..."
Pejović said that it is certain that criminal legislation will be improved by introducing new criminal offenses, such as femicide, as well as by more precise sanctioning of hate speech.
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